u/mr_z06

I am an amateur watch maker hobbyist so I am always looking for broken watches or movements and am wondering as the cost of repairs or service may cost more than the rep itself what do you do if a watch needs service or stops working? As sales are not allowed on rep time if you would like to donate your non working piece I will pay for shipping and also ship it back if I can get it fixed.

Here are the facts

1. This is most likely Bombay Special
2. The Pallet Fork goes left and right when touched and the Escape wheel is spinning
3. If i take off the pallet fork the movement works and the gears make the zoom noise :)
4. With the pallet fork removed if i install the balance complete the balance wheel spins for atleast 30 second without any issues.
5. Now put it all together and the Balance wheel stops pretty fast like it does not even make couple of oscillations.

I am not trying to buy anything as the Sub rules are clear there should be no buying or selling. If you have a broken shitter and going to throw it away i would be willing to pay for shipping if you are willing to give your shitter a chance at a second life :)

I have 7 watches for now that i cycle through. I currently have a 4 watch winder that is a cheaper one but it has options to do right and left and one way etc. I had it unplugged for the longest time as i was only wearing my Apple Watch now i wear my Apple Watch on the right hand and my mechanical watch on the left :) so now as i have gotten to know more about watchmaking does it matter that you let the watches just sit and fix time when you have to wear it vs let them run all the time which will cause wear. The synthetic oil and grease we use now should not gunk up even if it just sits right? I heard that unless you have a complicated watch just let the watches wind down and rest does everyone agree?

One of the top recommendation you get when starting this hobby is do not skimp on the screw drivers and tweezers. I bought cheap screw drivers set as i was just starting out and as long as i dress them up they have been very good on couple of watches including rust ones that i have worked on. So i think the difference between cheaper and more expensive tools is better finish but if you finish the cheap ones they do perform very good? A i wrong? Isn’t everything made in China and the only thing is Quality control that is why different things get different labels. Is there Material difference like 304 steel vs some other cheap steel but does that matter for a screw driver? I also saw esslinger sells Bergeron screw heads and i can buy those and out them on my cheap screw bodies as these are screw down heads.

2. Tweezers again they need regular dressing and i have been able to handle very small parts after dressing vs before dressing they kept falling. I still only use 1 or 2 tweezers not sure why i have a set of 15 :) may be there will be use cases later on my journey but i did dress them all just in case.

3. The Digital microscope as Alex mentioned in his video were good enough they are not for working on watches for that you need a stereo and Alex recommended AmScope which is around 5-600 . On Alix you can get a set of trinoculars eakins which seems like the same thing and has pretty good reviews for half the price 333 get you one shipped with all diffrent kinda of lenses and camera and it is simulfocus. Now the only people i know who make great lenses is Carl Zeiss and their microscope are 10s of thousand so i am not going there but if i get the eakins will it be a bad plastic lenses which will give me a headache? I plan on getting a VESA mount for the microscope and put it on an articulating arm stand. So should i spend extra 3-400 dollars and get AmScope or save me some money?

4. Also where do you source your parts from? Donor movements? The issue is s soon as you type in a specific movement name the price jumps high like i have seen screws for 25 + 15 dollar shipping if search for the parts. I got screws of my 30 dollar donor movements and they work great. I also took some other parts off of it. Now how do i get more seiko movements i have taken apart the ST36 and put it back together and improved my technique of oiling by holding the gems wth tweezers while applying and it has been working great. Working on Hair spring is kinda hard with the loupe glasses i got and the magnifying head set as my eye sight is not what is used to be. So i am hoping this microscope will help but than on the nag time side how do i find movements to work on? It’s like eBay has gone bezerk they want 100 plus dollar for non working seiko watches or any other watches. I been calling my local pawn shops and they got nothing and all charities have started selling these watches online as well. Where are you guys getting these watches to work on? I would hate to have this setup and than nothing to work on :(